


Moments

by WordsandWonder



Category: One Piece
Genre: Childhood Friends, Coroner Law, M/M, Modern AU, Tattoo Artist Kid
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-26
Updated: 2018-03-17
Packaged: 2019-03-24 04:06:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,230
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13803063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordsandWonder/pseuds/WordsandWonder
Summary: Memory is a funny thing. How life is remembered in fragments, little moments of long forgotten days that stand the test of time. How one small, ordinary word, or object, or smell, can take you back to that moment in a heartbeat.Kid and Law shared many such moments over the years, before they lost touch at the beginning of high school. Now they are both grown up, working and living far away from their hometown, the memories they made as kids and any feelings they might have been developing filed away as ancient history.But sometimes history repeats itself.





	1. Ducks

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Phalarika](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Phalarika/gifts).



> Commissioned work for phalarika!

Memory is a funny thing. How life is remembered in fragments, little moments of long forgotten days that stand the test of time. How one small ordinary word, or object, or smell, can take you back to that moment in a heartbeat. A fascinating trick of the mind.

 

It is that very trick of the mind that has Kid chuckling unprofessionally at the burly looking redneck in his chair, who just asked for a tattoo of a duck.

 

“Something funny?” Mr. Neck-Beard asked crossing camo-clad arms and giving Kid a look that was probably supposed to be intimidating.

 

Kid wiped his eyes and did his best to compose himself. “Nah, man, we’re straight.” He laughed again at his own inside joke. “Bitches love ducks.”

 

Apparently the John Deere enthusiast didn’t appreciate Kid’s humor, because he lurched out of the chair and stormed out the front door, yelling something about all the other tattoo parlors he could take his hard earned money too. Which was just fine by Kid. The guy smelled like he’d been sitting in a turkey blind all day anyway.

 

Killer popped his head around the cubicle wall. “Did I just hear you say bitches love ducks? What the fuck man?”

 

Kid sighed and stood, stretching in the limited space between his stool, his table, and his chair. “He caught me off guard. Big ass guy like that wants a picture of a damn duck on his ass. C’mon,” he lied, not willing to go through the process of explaining his amusement to Killer. Killer hadn’t found the situation Kid was remembering funny at the time, and he most definitely wouldn’t find it funny now when Kid had just lost them a customer.

 

It _was_ funny though.

 

+++

  

“You be my boyfriend?”

 

Thin blonde pigtails swung wildly with every bouncy step the little girl made, nearly trotting to keep up with the new kid as they walked along the nature path outside their “school.” They were both ahead of Kid on the rope, pudgy fists clenched tightly around the padded handles they were supposed to hold so they didn’t wander off. Normally being at the back of the line didn’t bother him, but today it was getting on Kid’s nerves because the girl was messing up the whole rest of the line as she struggled to get the attention of their new classmate.

 

He was a little guy, skinnier and shorter than Kid, which was good cuz then if he tried any funny business Kid could push him down. Kid sorted people into two groups: people he _could_ push down, and people he could _not_ push down, and he liked it when the first category was bigger than the second. So already the boy was starting off in Kid’s good graces, even though he was dressed funny and wearing a big hat despite the heat of summer.

 

“Hey! What you name? You be my boyfriend?”

Big, silver eyes finally turned to look at the girl, and even from his place on the rope, Kid could see that the boy was uncomfortable. He decided enough was enough.

“I, uh … I can’t …” the new boy stammered, adjusting his hat and shuffling his feet as they walked.

“Why?”

“Cuz I … uh …”

“Hey look, DUCKS!” Kid yelled, running right up to the persistent girl and pointing out at the pond. She squealed with delight and started exclaiming to her friends to look at the ducks too, and soon the teachers were forced to stop as eighteen four-year-olds pulled the rope to the edge of the sidewalk in an attempt to better observe the wildlife.

Kid took advantage of the distraction to pull the new kid aside. “Hey,” he greeted. “Aubrey want a boyfriend.”

The boy’s eyes were like saucers as he looked between Kid’s face and the hand Kid had on his arm. “I don’t wanna marry her.”

“S’okay, me either,” Kid assured him, patting his arm once before letting him go. “She will ask a lot of times. But you can make her forget with ducks.”

“Ducks? Like those?” The boy pointed out at the pond.

Kid nodded sagely. “Yup. Trust me. Bitches love ducks.”

“Eustass Kid! We do _not_ use that language at school! I’m going to have to write a note home to your mother, I’m afraid.”

Crap. Kid hadn’t noticed Ms. Morgan sneaking up on him. Stupid, sneaky Ms. Morgan; Kid didn’t like her. He couldn’t push her down at _all_.

“Look, Ms. Morgan! Ducks!” the new boy suddenly yelled. Kid stared in shock as he grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the pond, away from where Kid still stood.

After a moment, when Ms. Morgan was completely distracted by explaining some interesting fact about ducks, the new boy snuck back up to Kid. “I think it worked. She maybe forgot you said a bad word,” he whispered conspiratorially. Then he stuck his hand out stiffly. “I’m Law! I’m four and a half.”

Kid shook the offered hand. “I’m Kid, I’m four and _three quarters_.” Kid wasn’t actually sure what that meant, he just knew that three quarters was better than a half when it came to how old you were.

Law nodded and looked back to the loudly chattering children by the pond. “I think you are right,” he said. “Bitches _do_ love ducks!”

+++

Of course, right as Law had said that their other teacher had walked passed them and they both ended up going home with incident reports. Kid got grounded, but he overheard his mom cracking up on the phone with his aunt saying, “it – it actually _says_ on the _report_ “Eustass was heard telling another student that _bitches love ducks_!” Ha, oh my god, I can’t breathe. They “had a talk about using kind words at school and explored different ways he could share his ideas.” Hahaha! I swear to god, this daycare center takes itself way too seriously. It was so hard to keep a straight face to punish him.”

Still smirking at the memory, Kid stretched long arms over his head and rolled his neck to the side, cracking it twice and feeling instantly less tense. _Law Trafalgar,_ he thought, beginning the process of cleaning his equipment and shutting his station down for the night. _Huh. Wonder what the hell ever happened to that kid_. _We had some damn good times._


	2. Dr. Heartstealer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Commissioned work for phalarika!

“Ooooh, do you think Dr. Heartbreaker is in tonight?”

The nasal, simpering voice drew Law out of his work trance and he glanced up at his closed door with a frown. Either the woman on the other side truly believed he wasn’t in, or she didn’t realize how very thin the walls actually were down here. He was banking on the latter. People always assumed that his workspace was quiet because of thick walls or some kind of soundproofing, but in truth Law simply preferred to work in silence.

“Oh my god, first of all ew, second of all, what if he can hear you?”

“Oh whatever, he can’t hear us, the walls are super thick down here,” the first replied huffily, confirming Law’s suspicion. “Besides, it’s like midnight, he’s not here anymore. And what do you mean ew? Have you _seen_ him?”

The second voice hesitated, probably still unconvinced that he wasn’t listening. “I don’t have to see him to know that no one who plays with corpses all day is gonna break _my_ heart. Plus I heard he has the word death tattooed on his hands, and that is just sooooo extra.”

“Yeah, extra _sexy_.”

Law rolled his eyes and began shuffling the paperwork on his immaculate desk into a manila folder to join all the others in his file cabinet. A quick sweep of the room told him that he hadn’t missed anything while tidying up. The stainless-steel sinks were sanitized, as was the stainless-steel operating table in the middle of the shining linoleum floor. All his tools were disinfected and sealed away for the next day, and all lights were off except the one on his desk. He imagined he might be alone in thinking that the morgue looked softer, more welcoming, at night. But without the harsh illumination of the overhead fluorescents making everything gleam ominously, the room felt almost like it could be a regular doctor’s office, rather than a morgue in the basement of the police headquarters.

He glanced up at the clock, his forefinger idly tracing the bold letter on his thumb. It was indeed past midnight, as the first women outside his door had asserted, but most of Grand Line’s finest were well aware that he kept strange hours. They were new, then. Rookies, most likely, which meant that he was under direct orders from Smoker to not engage with them until they were accompanied by a senior officer who “knew how to handle his freaky ass.” Still, it seemed in poor taste to gossip about someone right outside their door without confirmation that they couldn’t hear you describing their dark under-eye circles and perpetual bedhead as a “major turn on.”

“I’m just saying,” the second woman argued. “I’ve heard some weird shit.”

“Well _I’m_ just saying that adds to the appeal,” the first woman countered, her voice lilting suggestively. Law could imagine her waggling her eyebrows at the other. “If it’s not a little freaky where’s the fun?”

“I mean, if that’s what you’re into I guess. But you won’t have any competition for your Dr. Heartbreaker from me.”

The repeated nickname rankled, but it took Law a moment to realize why. It wasn’t that he was being objectified; he was relatively used to that. It was the name itself that was wrong. It should Dr. Heart _stealer_ , not Dr. Heartbreaker, just like it had been all those years ago.

 

+++

 

“Freeze! There’s nowhere to go, Dr. Heartstealer! We have you surrounded!”

Law froze, eyes darting around to find that he was, in fact, surrounded. “You’ll never catch me!” he hissed back at the redheaded enemy blocking his path. “Room!”

In a flash of translucent blue, Law had switched places with a rock and was running toward his goal, leaving his would-be captors scrambling to catch up. He was almost there, he could see the treasure sparkling invitingly under the single ray of sunlight let in by a hole in the ceiling of the cave. How long had he dreamed, how far had he searched for this? And now the countless hours spend researching, days spent traveling, months spent fighting … now they all came to fruition. Now he had found it; the precious spoils of his hard won-victories finally within reach.  But just as he reached out to claim his prize, a thick metal pole slammed into his waist, throwing him up against the cave wall and pinning him there. He struggled against the hold of the metal and watched his enemy approach him, grinning manically as his fingers twitched and the metal pressed Law closer to the hard rock at his back.

“You really thought you could defeat me, Dr. Heartstealer?” he asked, using his magnetic control to make the metal dig painfully into his hostage. “I am Captain Kid, leader of the Kid Pirates. Anyone who gets in my way will be destroyed!”

Law fixed him with a withering glare. He had come too far to see the treasure fall into the hands of another. He was exhausted and dirty, worn to the bone from days of endlessly searching while fighting off anyone who impeded his path. To have his victory snatched from him when he was so close … he would not abide it. In his arrogance the foolish captain had not bound Law’s hands and was now within reach. Faster than a striking cobra, Law darted his hand out and placed it firmly on his enemy’s heart.

“Shambles,” he whispered dangerously, his silver eyes sparkling with triumph as he pulled the still beating organ from the captain’s chest.

“Hey, wait, time out! No fair! You can’t use shambles right now, you didn’t use room!”

Kid and Law both turned to the source of the protest. Killer stood at the entrance to the garage, arms crossed and young face stern. “It’s too OP if you can just pull someone’s heart out anytime you want, that’s why we made the rules.”

“I _did_ make a room, you just didn’t hear me,” Law argued, stepping down off the crates he’d been balancing on. He grimaced as he looked back at the wall he’d thrown himself against and noticed how filthy it was. An actual cave wall probably would have been cleaner.

“But that’s no fair,” the blonde insisted. “If we don’t have to hear you say it that’s the same as you not having to do it, and that’s too OP!”

“Well if this was a _real_ power and a _real_ battle you wouldn’t know all my moves and all my plans.” Law crossed his arms over his chest as well, mimicking the other’s posture. “If it was a real power I totally would have set up a room over the cave so I could control everything inside it.”

“But that’s –“

“Too OP, we know” Kid interrupted, his hand still held almost subconsciously over his heart. “But c’mon, Killer, he’s kinda right. I shoulda known it was a trap.”

“But-“

“Plus, you didn’t hear him argue ‘bout where I got a pole in a cave on a desert island,” Kid pointed out. “He just jumped against the wall and made up a new plan. Like a real battle! It’s way funner that way!”

“But you lost,” Killer reminded him slowly.

Honestly, Law had been expecting Kid to take Killer’s side on this one. The boy generally didn’t take well to losing, and unless he’d had some big backup plan that Killer had interrupted, Law stealing his heart this close to the treasure pretty much meant Law won. But instead of being angry and arguing that Law was cheating, Kid was looking at him with something close to respect.

Kid shrugged. “He had a better plan. It’s okay. I’ll win next time.” He grinned and for a moment Law thought he saw a flash of something mischievous in his smile. “Go ahead and open the treasure.”

Law trotted over to the lunchbox that held today’s “treasure.” From the look of it, it had been Kid’s mom’s turn to pack it. Since school had let out for the summer, Kid, Killer, Law, Heat, Shachi, and sometimes Bonney had been playing together every day, which meant that every day they raided someone’s house at mid-afternoon in search of a snack. It hadn’t taken more than a few chaotic instances of this for their parents to decide to take turns packing an afternoon snack for all of them in an attempt to keep the rowdy group outside for as long as possible. It had been Kid’s idea to make the snack part of their games, to make it a treasure they were hunting for. Whoever’s parents packed the snack got to hide it and make clues about where to find it, creating their adventure for the day. Then whoever won it got first pick of what was inside. Everyone was getting pretty good at making cool stories, but the adventures were always best when it was Kid’s turn. And, since his mom was a chef, the snacks were usually the best when it was his turn too.

So it was with no small amount of excitement that Law pried back the lid of the lunchbox to reveal …

Pizza bagels.

“Aw, yes!” Bonney cried, pumping her fist. “Are those pizza bagels?! Aunt Laura makes the best snacks! What kind are they? Pass ‘em out, Law!”

Law glared at Kid. The glint of mischievousness made sense now, and Kid’s easy acceptance of his defeat. He knew how much Law hated when their mystery snack had bread in it, especially if he won that day. It didn’t happen that often, since usually the parents were more inclined to just throw six single-serve bags of Fritos in the box and call it good, but when Kid’s mom had time she liked to make a nice snack, and that’s when Law ran into the bread dilemma. His stomach growled as he passed out the bagels and kept one that looked like it had a bit more cheese on it than the others for himself. He could at least eat the toppings off this snack, unlike the time Heat’s mom sent them jelly sandwiches.

Kid slid onto a crate next to the one Law sat on and watched him pick at the melted four-cheese blend for a moment before finally sighing. “I’ll tell her you don’t eat bread,” he offered quietly.

Law shrugged. “You don’t have to, it’s okay.”

Kid nudged his shoulder into Law’s playfully. “Yeah, but I will.”

They ate in amiable silence in the late afternoon light, the occasional warm summer breeze drifting through the open garage door and providing a momentary respite from the suffocating heat of early August. Even though the adventures and games were really fun, Law thought he probably liked this part of the day best. The part where they all sat around eating snacks, comfortable in each other’s company. Even when they were just lounging around in Shachi’s dusty garage with no view to speak of, it was nice to just sit together and be still.

“School’s startin’ again soon. Betcha you’re all excited cuz you’re such a nerd.” Kid said after a while. He wiped his hands on his already filthy shorts and then leaned back on the wall with his hands behind his head. The picture of nonchalance.

Law swallowed a mouthful of pepperoni. “Not really. Fourth grade probably isn’t that different from third.”

“But one step closer to high school, right?”

Law smiled. “Yeah, one step closer to high school.”

 

+++

 

Law shook his head, smiling softly as he remembered that summer day. Dr. Heartstealer had frequently been his chosen character on their adventures, but that was the first time the doctor ever won the game. It wasn’t the last, though, and by the end of that summer he and Captain Kid were locked in an epic competition so intense it became the stuff of legends around the neighborhood. For years younger kids tried to recreate the magical stories they’d heard about, the famed battles of Dr. Heartstealer and Captain Kid.

When he finally heard the women’s voices growing fainter as their footsteps faded into the distance, Law clicked off his lamp light and made his way to the steel door in the dark. He knew this room like the back of his hand and could probably have performed a basic autopsy on someone in here in total darkness if he had to. Not that he thought that theory likely to be tested. He locked the door to the morgue, then made his way down the dreary gray and seafoam hallway and up the stairs, making brief, uncomfortable eye contact with two women he had never seen before who had the decency to look slightly guilty as he walked past them and out into the mild spring night. Usually he’d be more amused by their obvious discomfort at being caught, but tonight his mind was elsewhere, thinking about that epic summer, and wondering where in the world his childhood friend might be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like my work? You can commission me! Check out my pricing and rules at https://words-and-fangirling-wonder.tumblr.com/post/164769533643/commissions-are-open

**Author's Note:**

> Like my work? You can commission me! Check out my pricing and rules at https://words-and-fangirling-wonder.tumblr.com/post/164769533643/commissions-are-open


End file.
